The hills are alive...

Today, I looked at the hills and I suddenly realized they were getting green.  Amazing what 9 days of rain, in a row no less, will do for the earth.  Fall is finally here!  I know some people, and one in particular, are disliking the suddenly cooler, if not downright cold, weather.  But I'm loving it.  Sorry baby!  And, in preparation for the annual winter trip to Michigan, my blood is even getting thicker from enduring the freezing interior of my house.  I must admit, though, that 9 days in a row of rain is a little bit excessive....

I got out one morning last week and took a few pictures of my flowers when the rain let up a bit.  Here are some of the results:

Off to the Gym

I've always hated the gym.  Being stuck inside.  Dirty, sticky equipment, that all kinds of sweaty people have touched.  And it doesn't take much activity to get drenched.  Do they do that on purpose?  Pump up the humidity and turn the air down so that by the time you finish your workout, you're drenched.  Just to make people feel like they've done a hard workout no matter how easy it is?

But the people watching at the gym is fantastic.  For instance, the 50-something guy last week, with long, graying black hair, wearing jean shorts with leather belt, white wife-beater tank, pulled up above his hairy belly (and no, he didn't have a 6 pack).  Or the short, Asian guy in sweatpants with shirt tucked in, sitting on one piece of weight equipment for long periods of time, staring at women.  Creepy!  Then there's this very fit African American chick, with arms I would love to have...

But, alas, I, too, have become a gym rat.  Well, sort of.  I can't do anything else.  It's my rehab.  Upper body strengthening, plus working on regaining mobility in my right hip and knee, and gaining some supportive strength around those joints.  I'm also making up for not using my 3 year prepaid membership more than a few times in the last 2 years.  Maybe after the next couple of months, I won't be able to get enough either.  Best case scenario, I'll gain some respect for gym-going and strength training, and I'll be ready to keep it up (a little) and hit the road in January.  I'm already planning my first race, the LA 5K or Half Marathon (wishful thinking) on January 16th.

Got the goods

I finally have gotten the goods and it has been coming in handy.  It didn't come without a little bit of a cost, namely waiting in line at the DMV -- everyone's favorite activity.  Seems like one could come up with a better system for the DMV, but no matter, that's not my point here.  Besides, due to my "gimp" status (Matt's description for me), I got to skip to the front of the line to get my number.  It still took 45 minutes of waiting before we got called to the front though, poor suckers at the back of the line.  (The line was already wrapped around to the back of the DMV by 8:15!)  We also waited at the laboratory, the pharmacy, and the disability office that morning.  Matt said we should have just hit the Social Security Office for good measure, while we were at it.  Anyway, so here it is:

Never thought I'd have one of these.  But let me tell you, I'm "loving" it, so to speak.  There is absolutely nothing good about crutches: if you are hopping around, your hands and arms start hurting; but if you stop and stand, your good leg and foot starts hurting.  There's no winning.  Now we park at the front, and save my hands from blisters and my left leg from aching.  It also cuts down on bitching and moaning (from all parties involved).  So, it may be a little drastic to go to such lengths to get my Handicap placard, but a gimp girl's gotta have some perks, right?

Mystery Solved

Well, the verdict is in.  And, yes, I am Osteopenic.  For those of you non-medi people out there, that means low bone density.  Doesn't mean I'm unhealthy, of course.  Because everyone is at risk of medical problems.  I just didn't realize I was particularly at risk for this one.  I feel a little silly, of course, being a doc and all.  But, then again, I'm not a Sports Med doc either.  A lesson learned.  And maybe I can ed-u-ma-cate others through all of this.

I've always prided myself on being in good physical fitness.  In most recent years, if I must say so myself, I've been in pretty tip-top shape.  Between marathons or hours of riding, I am an excerise fanatic.  No flabby here.  (Although, for all of you females out there, I still suffer from the same flashes of feeling "fat".)  Even with no exercise for 2 months, I haven't really gained much weight, although I have lost muscle mass, whatever that is worth.  But Matt is haggling me to get on the rehab road, so this week, I've gotten the bug back.

So, what makes me at risk?  Well, for one, Cycling.  As I've blogged before, 63% of cyclists are osteopenic.  That includes men and women.  At least part of this is from the lack of weight bearing exercise.  Obviously my 1 (or occasionally 2 to 3) days of running every week didn't cut it. (Oh for the days of 30-50 mile running weeks.)  The other is what is called the "Female Athlete Triad".  Including, low estrogen, low bone density, and energy low diet.  Women who exercise a lot, tend to turn normal body cycles off which leads to low estrogen.  That can have it's benefits, but... (you'll probably understand this if you are a woman).  They also tend to  be very food conscious - low fat diet all the way, baby!  Both of these (estrogen and diet) factor into low body fat.  Did you know that for a female althete, body fat content is considered to be less than 17%?  Well, the last time I was checked, I was in the 13% range.  Flabby, nope.  But so unfair, since some male athletes get to 2-3%, and they don't have such troubles.   And of course, the 2 former tendencies, can lead to lower bone-forming abilities.  Further, most "younger" women, don't think of taking calcium supplementation PLUS Vitamin D; that's for old women, right?

Well, this is my plug for all of you female athletes out there.  (And men too: it can't hurt.)  Take your Calcium: at least 500 mg/day, and 1000 mg is even better.  And definitely take your Vitamin D: 800-1000 mg/day for good measure (even if you do get sun exposure).

So, mystery solved: low bone density increases your risk of fracture.  So if you crash, you break, and in my case, you break into many pieces.  Lessoned learned and healing is in process.

To Tan or Not To Tan

Actually, in my case, that should maybe read: "To Burn."  But whatever.  Well past my childhood, I was determined to lay out enough to get tan.  It took me years to figure out that this was not to be.  I have 2 colors: transparent white and lobster red.  I well remember one of my first burns when I was maybe 8 or 9 (it may not be one of the first, but definitely one of the worst).  We went to Florida as a family, and I got FRIED.  I remember sitting in a bathtub of oatmeal, trying to feel better.  There was also the aloe treatments and apple cidar vinegar -- Yes, that's right, vinegar.  Even into Med School, Carolyn and I would spend hours by the pool studying for our classes -- especially 2nd year.  In fact, I probably spent more time doing that, than actually in class (i.e. I skipped a lot of class my 2nd year).  All of that to produce, a very red "tan" and possibly later: skin cancer.

Well, in more recent years, I have been fastidious about using sunscreen.  This year, it was pretty much all 30 and above.  But alas, this may all be part of my problem.  Over less than 3 years, I broke: ribs, a toe, ribs again, collarbone (shattered = surgery and hardware), and then my femur (shattered = more surgery and more hardware).  Is there a problem, doctor?  Turns out my Vitamin D is low.  This is the preliminary report.  Vitamin D helps with bone growth and strength.  My x-ray 2 weeks ago showed only minimal bone growth and a still unstable fracture, after 6 weeks!  Next week, I have a bone density test, so this will be the tell all test.  Now, I really feel old.  Not only did I break my femur in a place in which traditionally is found when old people break their "hip", but now I get to have a test that traditionally is reserved for older ladies above 60 years of age!  So what does this have to do with sunscreen?  Well, it blocks your body's natural ability to make Vitamin D.

What's more, after about mid-2005, most of my exercise has been non-weightbearing.  I pretty much stopped running (or ran minimally) and started cycling.  One study has shown that 63% of cyclists (yes, those younger than 60 y/o) have osteopenia (low bone density).  So if you cycle and fall and have low bone density, beware!  Other things that can contribute: alcohol and caffeine consumption.  Darn!  I love my coffee and wine.

So, all you cyclists out there, take your Calcium and Vitamin D!  If I've learned anything through all of this, it is to do just that.  And do some weightbearing exercise too, while you are at it.

Insomnia?

Wouldn't you think that "insomnia" means that you are sleeping?  "Somnia" equals sleep in Latin.  So shouldn't it be "in"-"sleep"?  But apparently in Latin, "in" means "not".  How does that make sense? But the Latin meaning is pretty much what I've been experiencing lately.  "Not sleep."  At the beginning of all of this broken leg stuff, I had these little things:

A little of this every 6 hours, a little of that every alternating 6 hours.  Some of that other thing every 8 hours.  Not to mention all those vitamins and minerals.  Phew!  I had a virtual pharmacy in my bedroom.  No wonder I was sleeping well!  Maybe I slept too much those first weeks... now that I don't have those little wonder pills, I have to do it all on my on.  My body is paying me back for all of the abuse and is making up for it.  So if you ever want to know what 3 a.m. is like, I got the down-low on that one.

On the verge...

You'd think these days that I'd be blogging like crazy.  Instead I'm experiencing another form of crazy.  Blogging requires something to blog about.  For me, I get these ideas from things I see, do, or hear about as I go through my day.  These days, though, this is my usual view:

And this is my usual mode of transportation:

And this is where I hang out all day, every day, those endlessssss hours:

It doesn't give me much to blog about; that is, unless, you want to hear about the latest news from "Good Morning America" (which, by the way, there's not a whole lot of news after 8:30 am, the time when I usually start watching), or the mundane humor from "Live! With Regis and Kelly", or the latest, supposedly, controversial gossip from "The View."  I'm hoping to get a phone call from Regis one of these days, and maybe I can win a trip to a resort in the Caribbean by answering a question about yesterday's show, since I'm up to date and all.  Can I get across the sand with a walker?  There's only so much you can surf the web, only so long you can read books, and only so many movies one can watch before the craziness sets in.  So if I end up in the mad house, you'll know why...